First post-surgery guitar test: short "Minor Swing"

[abel]

Hi all,

I hope you are doing better than I.
Anyway, thank God, I am doing much much better now, except for numbness in the right hand first 3 fingers (those that hold the pick unfortunately).
I will undergo a cervical epidural for that. The surgeon said that should fix it.

Despite this, I wanted to try to play my new Gitano, but due to the loss of feeling in the right hand, I was loosing the pick so I had to limit it to
a short sound file. (I took away my neck / chest brace so you wont be deterred to watch).
I am a little disappointed with the guitar as I noticed a serious problem with the neck from the 12th fret to the end, the fretboard
height and thickness increases after the 12th fret, so from the 12th to the 16th fret, you get the same note whenever you hit any of the 3 first strings.
That part of the guitar is not really playable, it's like buldging.
I tried to loosen the struss but it didn't help at all.
So I put some plumber's tape on the bridge under the strings to lessen the problem (you can see the tape glowing below my right hand).
I emailed Musician Friends and their answer was: "A full fret level and a good setup should solve your problems." Great !.
I guess you get what you pay for ($400 I think).

Anyway here I put the short essai I did with it using a "Minor Swing" midi file in the Sound Files section .

Also, I dug out a tape of our band "International Men Of Mystery and Danny Dean", Paying tribute to the early Cliff Richard and The Shadows at Suzy's in Hermosa Beach California in 2010. The first 2 songs recorded with basically only home work and no rehearsal (and with a basic video cam hence the mediocre sound) are:
- "Nine Times Out of Ten"
- "Tough Enough"

You will find them in the Sound Files section.

Blessings to all,
Abel

[bazmusicman]

Hi Abel,
Congratulations on your video and very fine guitar playing.
I'm sorry to hear that you have trouble with your fingers and cant hold a pick very well.

I too have a problem holding the pick and playing chords because of a progressive weakness in my hands.
To stop dropping the pick I stuck a piece of elastic band to it in a loop to put your thumb through (like a
Banjo playing pick). By being elastic it gives movement as you play rather than being solid, like a standard type thumb pick.
I hope this idea of mine (which I have been using for a number of years) helps you and I hope you get your feeling back and
you can get playing again.

Best regards,
Baz.

[abel]

Hi Baz,

Sorry to hear about your weakness in the right hand. I hope you get your feeling backone day soon.
Your rubber trick is clean and very good.
I have to tell you and everyone that I used Gorilla Snot on the pick to stick to my fingers, and even then, I lost it a couple of times when doing the
chords sequence, so I had to do a couple more takes.

Thank you for your nice wishes,
Abel

[Bluesnote]

You did really well doing the Django music and trying to hold onto the pick. Its a real test on the right hand, picking and strumming that kind of music. It's not the way I'd like to start back from an operation by playing that hard, the Shads is a breeze by comparison. You certainly have a feel for the great mans music
The guitar sounds great and I'm sure with a bit of tinkering will be more playable in time. There's always a way to fix them with a bit of work. I posted something in here a while back on having to file down my frets from the twelth to the top as they were slightly higher than the others. I worked on it every time I did a string change and now it plays great. A lot better than getting a luthier to do the job as they can be pretty costly, and you have to try find a good one that knows what they are doing. If its a top-end instrument it may be worth it but as I have a Squier, it would probably cost nearly as much as the guitar did to get the work done.
That and the fact that I'm Scots before anybody else says it in here
Hugh.

P.S. I read your post again. It almost sounds as if the guitar has a twist on the neck to give you that much of a problem, or possibly a twisted or badly made bridge? If you go down the road of fixing it yourself..... I purchased one of these long sanding stones that you use to sharpen chisels and worked on the problem areas with that. As it covered a large area of the fretboard at one time, it did a great job.

[bazmusicman]

Hi Abel,
Gorilla snot? that must be like a thing we call 'Blu-Tac' which we use for sticking birthday cards to the wall with.
Before using the 'rubber band idea' I did try different things like 'Blu- Tac' 'Double sided tape' etc. but the rubber band is the best so far.

Best regards,
Baz.

[JimN]

I seem to recall that 'Gorilla Snot' is a rubbery, latex-like substance with more adhesion than blu-tak or similar. It is sold specifically as an aid to plectrum grippiness...

You can buy it in the UK: http://www.gak.co.uk/en/gorilla-snot-grip-solution/2920

...though whether you'd want to is another matter.

Couldn't they have thought of a better name for it?

JN

[Iain Purdon]

Jet was very happy to talk on stage about Gorilla Snot!

[geoff1711]

I always thought that Gorilla Snot was the stuff they used to stick the Cd's onto the Guitarist magazine.

Failing that what about a thumb pick? I've never got on with them because they hurt my thumb, but I guess you'd get used to that and better than not being able to play

Geoff

[abel]

Hi All,

Thank you for your warm wishes and helpful hints.

Below I am adding some pictures of my guitar neck (not mine, I hope it's been fixed for good by God) so that you can tell me the extent of the work to be done.

Hugh,

The long sanding stones you use to lower the fretboard, but what do you do for the frets themselves. I am not sure I can handle this really.

Thank you all for your help.

Blessings,
Abel

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[Bluesnote]

Abel. I use the long sanding stone for the frets. With great care of course, but it makes it easier to file the frets down evenly over a large area. I've got a really fine stone to do the job.its not one of the large stones like the ones you use for handplane blades and chisels(I know I said chisels on the earlier post) but a long narrow one for sharpening knives. I got it in Canadian Tire last time I was over there. It works a treat I have to say, but if you are not too confident in doing it yourself then you may want to get the professionals to do the job.
As with most things nowadays, you will most likely find out the correct way to do it on youtube I'm guessing.
Hugh.